Kyrgyzstan: prison officer detained with a large consignment of drugs

On August 7, at the checkpoint of the closed institution No. 1, employees of the Internal Investigation Service of the State Penitentiary Service and operational officers of the institution, while inspecting the personal belongings of the head of the medical and sanitary unit, found almost three kilograms of hemp.

This fact is registered in the information log. Currently, the investigative service of the State Penitentiary Service is carrying out investigative measures.

“The involvement of police officers and the State Penitentiary Service in drug trafficking is not a revelation. From time to time, information appears in the media about the detention of employees of these departments for complicity in crimes related to drug trafficking. And this case is not something exceptional. This fact once again proves the current state of affairs, “lawyer Arsen Ambaryan commented to ACCA.

According to him, in this situation, the nature of the incident is surprising.

“Here, the ratio of the mass of the found substance and the consequences caused by the detention looks very strange. It is known that the detainee is an employee of a correctional institution. He was detained, but not arrested, and the fact of an illegal traffic attempt was recorded not in the Unified Register of Crimes and Misdemeanors, but the information book. In other words, no criminal case has been initiated, ”Ambaryan said indignantly. He notes that literally two days ago, the Kyrgyz press reported on a special operation and the arrest of a drug dealer with 112 grams of a similar substance. Result – registration with the URCM and arrest.

“In this case, the operation itself raises a lot of questions: the drug dealer is being“ led ”all the way from Jalal-Abad, detained in the village of Sosnovka, Chui oblast, and the investigation is being carried out by the Leninsky district police department of Bishkek. It can be assumed that both of these offenses will be classified as marketing based on the weight of the substance. Although the sale itself did not take place, due to the detention of the offenders, the drug did not get into criminal circulation. Nobody will study the source of origin – this is not required by law. The level of evidence is practically nonexistent: interrogation of witnesses – police officers, expert examination. Damage to the state is unknown. According to the law, offenders are awaiting trial and at least 7.5 years in prison. Although, if we talk about an employee of the State Penitentiary Service, it is not known how this story will end. Until now, there have been no high-profile trials in Kyrgyzstan involving employees of the penitentiary system, ”explains the lawyer.

He notes that even though the drug policy of Kyrgyzstan is quite liberal compared to neighboring countries, the laws that implement it do not justify themselves, neither in terms of improving the situation nor in terms of costs for the implementation of this drug policy.

“Putting a person in jail is cheaper than doing prevention and treatment of addiction,” says Ambaryan.

It should be noted that during the period of serving time in Kyrgyzstan, a thief in law Aziz Batukaev, the media published pictures of his house on the territory of the colony, the garden where he grew hemp, although this is prohibited by internal rules.